What are blue based blonde colors & how do they work?

Blue-based ash blonde colors are blonde colors with blue and ash based pigments added.

Blue is the opposite to yellow-orange and orange on the color wheel.

As a result, blue helps neutralize these warm colors and produce a cooler tone.

By using blue based blonde colors you can neutralize orange, yellow and brassy tones in the hair and produce a cooler, blonde tone instead.

How should I get rid of orange hair?

Hair which is orange is hair that has not been lifted enough.

So there are essentially 2 things you can do.

You need to decide which of these works best for you.

Option 1: go full blonde

If you go for this option, you will need to re-apply bleach and lift as much of the orange as you can. 

Then tone with very blonde blue based colors such as 10.1b, silver blonde, intense silver blonde.

Option 2: go medium blonde

If you are unwilling to use bleach again for whatever reason, you can cover the orange using 7.1b, 8.1b and also ash blue additive.

This option will allow you to go medium blonde or dark blonde.

You will essentially be covering and toning down.

Option 1: How should I use blue based blonde colors to go full blonde?

Mix bleach with developer and saturate the hair.

Let it process all the way until no orange is visible. Try and get the hair to pale yellow level 10.

The better you bleach, the better will be your final blonde result.

Then rinse. Now choose your blue based blonde color.

We would recommend 10.1b Extra Light Cold Ash Blonde & 9.1b Very Light Cold Ash Blonde.

Mix with 20 Vol and process on the hair until the hair has been toned - around 15 minutes or so is normal.

Then rinse and apply an acidic shampoo.

Option 2: How should I use blue based blonde colors to go medium or dark blonde?

Once again, mix bleach with developer and apply.

Try to get your hair at least to a yellow level 8 or 9. 

If you are still seeing orange, you have not bleached enough.

Now rinse and choose your blue based blonde color.

For medium blonde, we would suggest 8.1b Light Cold Ash Blonde, 7.1b Cold Ash Blonde or 6.1b Dark Cold Ash Blonde.

If there is a lot of yellow in the hair, you should squeeze an inch of Ash Blue Additive along with your mix.

This will help neutralize the yellow and tone down.

Mix your color with 20 Vol and process. Typical processing time would be around 20 minutes.

Rinse with an acidic shampoo & you're done.

What about blue based shampoos, masks and semis? Don't they work?

Yes they do. They use the same Color Wheel principle that we mentioned earlier.

Ugly Duckling has an excellent blue and purple based shampoo and mask which we invite you to try out.

But shampoos, masks and semis don't penetrate into the hair cuticle.

And they cannot lift.

What they do instead is to coat the blue pigments onto the surface of the hair.

So our suggestion would be to use such products as maintenance and refresh products.

And use bleach & blue based colors to do the heavy lifting.